DIY Satsuma Candle

A friend of mine DIYed her own candles, made from the peels of Satsuma oranges, for a recent dinner party. I was so excited by this simple yet clever idea, I had to share the tutorial on HonestlyWTF. My only regret is not discovering this sooner when Satsumas were at their absolute peak in December. Hopefully, you’ll still be able to snatch up a few at your local grocery store or farmer’s market and impress your guests at your next dinner party!

You’ll need:

The stem side of the Satsuma will be the bottom and base of the candle. Lightly score a ring around the top 1/3 portion of the orange. Peel off the top.

Because Satsumas are known for their loosely attached peels, the orange should easily be removed. Gently separate the orange from of the peel with the help of a spoon. Slowly work the spoon towards the bottom and pry the orange out from the sides, making sure not to break through the middle.

Once the flesh of the orange is taken out, the pith connecting the outer stem should remain. The pith will be the wick of the candle. Snip the outer stem off with a pair of scissors so the candle can sit flat.

Pour a few glugs of olive oil into the orange, leaving just the very tip of the pith exposed. Use the spoon to submerge the top of the pith into the oil for just a few seconds. It’s now ready to be lit! *** Tip: if you’re having trouble lighting the pith, it’s probably because it has too much moisture. Try letting the peel dry overnight (without oil) and don’t forget to submerge the tip into oil for a few seconds before lighting.

Depending on the length of the pith, the candle should burn for at least a couple of hours. Remember, never leave candles unattended while burning! xx

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Another cool idea is to use the other half as a top, and cut out the shape of a star in the part where it attaches to the tree. the hole is needed, because otherwise it would burn, but it also looks so pretty! the whole mandarin will light up like a lantern 😀

So simple and yet so beautiful. I have the nostalgia of a time where people was making a lot of things with their own hands. I think that the modern life makes us loose our individual creativity . (Sorry English is not my first language).
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aaaw this is remembering my childhood, at xmas time my mum made them as well.
it was excithing when they were working.;-D
And beautiful and lovely smelling, thank you for making me smile;-D
Have a great fun weekend as well;-D

I got it to light right away using a “cutie clementine” mandarin orange and plain old olive oil. I let the orange dry overnight. My other trick was to just pour the oil directly over the wick when adding to the orange, instead of pushing the wick into the oil after it is added. Worked like a charm! And it burned for a delightfully long time!

Awesome idea but it didn’t work for me. I tried on the oranges listed in the directions and on a normal orange. Both lit for 10 seconds then died. So then I dried them out over night and tried again but it still didn’t work 🙁

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I did it with a pink grapefruit and sunflower oil and it turned out amazing! I love the grapefruit smell and then I added a little cinnamon too! Yes, HANG IN THERE! I used almost an entire book of matches and then I realized I should have put a little oil on the wick! But, either way, it did light and kept burning….is still burning! Give it a try!

So cute! Reminds me of this gigantic pomelo flower candle I used to make as a little kid (thanks mum!). It was really cool but it was too big to remain as a bowl (to hard to cut too) so my mother just sliced the peel nearly all the way down to the bottom and removed the pomelo fruit inside. Stuck a pretty little candle inside. But I’ll definitely be trying these ones. Maybe for Halloween. LOL. I’ll just have to wait then. ; )